The present invention relates to a recording medium and recording/playback apparatus capable of recording and reproducing recording reservation information and, more particularly, to an apparatus which can be effectively incorporated into a digital video disk recording/playback apparatus.
As is well known, moving picture optical disk playback apparatuses capable of reproducing optical H disks recording, e.g., video and audio data have been developed recently. For example, LDs (Laser Disks) and video CDs (Compact Disks) are finding widespread use for movie software, karaoke, and the like.
At present, a DVD (Digital Video Disk) video standard based on an AC-3 audio compression method has been proposed by using the internationally standardized MPEG (Moving Picture Image Coding Experts Group) 2 method.
This DVD video standard supports MPEG2 as a moving image compression method and AC-3 audio, MPEG audio, and linear PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) as audio compression methods in accordance with MPEG2 system layers. Additionally, the DVD video standard includes sub-picture data, for a caption, which is obtained by run-length-compressing bitmap data, and control data (navigation data) for special playback such as fast forward playback and fast rewind playback.
This DVD video standard also supports ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 9660 and micro UDF (Universal Disk Format) to allow computers to read data.
After that, a DVD-RAM (Random Access Memory) has been announced and rewritable optical disks having capacities such as 2.6 Gbytes (Gigabytes) and 4.7 Gbytes have been realized.
These technologies are beginning to realize recording and playback of video signals with respect to optical disks.
Meanwhile, VTRs (Video Tape Recorders) are currently widely used as means for recording video and audio signals. These VTRs have very high cost performance because the running cost with respect to the recorded information amount is low.
On the other hand, an optical disk as a recording medium represented by a DVD-RAM is required to be able to record computer data and disk management information in addition to video data.
It is expected by using the superiority of a disk over a VTR to realize new functions which have been impossible.
One of these new functions is program reservation recording. To realize this reservation recording, recording reservation must be performed before that. Conventionally, various improvements such as a G code system have been made to simplify recording reservation. However, settings for recording reservation are. still considerably cumbersome.
Additionally, to make a collection of a certain program by sequentially recording episodes of the program in a single optical disk, it is necessary to perform inefficient operations of managing the correspondence between optical disks and such programs and performing recording reservation each time a program of interest is broadcast.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above situation, and has as its object to provide a recording medium which can record reservation (recording reservation) information of recording, i.e., recording reservation information or by which a recording/playback apparatus automatically starts up in accordance with reservation information and performs reservation recording.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a recording/playback apparatus which accesses the recording medium and records or reproduces reservation information.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a recording/playback apparatus capable of accessing a recording medium and performing reservation recording on the basis of reservation information recorded on the recording medium.
A recording medium according to the present invention has a management area and a data area. Information pertaining to recording reservation is recorded in the management area so as to be displayable in the form of an image.
Also, a recording/playback apparatus according to the present invention records and reproduces information with respect to a recording medium. The apparatus includes control means for reading information pertaining to recording reservation, which is recorded on the recording medium so as to be displayable in the form of an image, and executing a reservation recording operation on the basis of this information.
In the above arrangements, the information pertaining to recording reservation is recorded on the recording medium. Therefore, reservation recording of a program can be efficiently performed with a high degree of freedom.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.